Information about London Buses using different coloured liveries from mid-1980s to late 1990s/early 2000s as part of privatisation of bus services
Request ID: FOI-2624-2122 Date published: 02 March 2022
You asked
Dear Transport for London
I'm researching about the liveries of London Bus operators using their own livery colours other than red.
During mid-1980s when London Regional Transport (LRT) was formed and their policy was to transform bus services to the private sector by competitive tendering.
I was reading the articles on the London Transport Museum (LTM) website titled 'Why are London buses red?' and 'Not all London buses are red'. Unfortunately there's no information about London Buses not using red livery used during the years from mid-1980s to late 1990s/early 2000s.
https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/stories/transport/why-are-london-buses-red
https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/blog/not-all-london-buses-are-red-discover-our-green-rm2-bus
Although the LTM article titled 'Buses, politics and privatisation' features photographs of buses in different coloured livery but no further details about them.
https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/stories/transport/buses-politics-and-privatisation
My questions as follow:
1. Why did London Regional Transport (and later London Transport Buses) allowed private bus operators to use their own livery which are not red for their route contracts?
2. At the beginning of competitive tendering, why LRT haven't required bus operators to conform to a standardised red livery for their route contracts?
3. Was it part of LRT and London Transport Buses policy to have bus liveries specified by the private bus operators?
4. At the time, were there concerns raised by the general public and tourist organisations about various buses in London using their own liveries other than red?
5. What information was provided by LRT to advise passengers about some services using different coloured buses which caused confusion?
6. When the subsidiary companies of London Buses was sold around year 1994, were the buyers required to retain the red livery for their operations?
7. When did London Transport and later TfL started to require bus operators to use red (or partial red) livery as part of their route contracts?
8. When TfL reverted back to the pre-1987 traditional livery with 100% red and white roundels for all buses?
I'd be grateful if you can take your time to research and and provide answers to my questions.
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-2624-2122
Thank you for your request received by Transport for London (TfL) on 13th February 2022 asking for information about London bus liveries.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy.
Specifically you asked:
“I'm researching about the liveries of London Bus operators using their own livery colours other than red.
During mid-1980s when London Regional Transport (LRT) was formed and their policy was to transform bus services to the private sector by competitive tendering.
I was reading the articles on the London Transport Museum (LTM) website titled 'Why are London buses red?' and 'Not all London buses are red'. Unfortunately there's no information about London Buses not using red livery used during the years from mid-1980s to late 1990s/early 2000s.
Although the LTM article titled 'Buses, politics and privatisation' features photographs of buses in different coloured livery but no further details about them.
1. Why did London Regional Transport (and later London Transport Buses) allowed private bus operators to use their own livery which are not red for their route contracts?
2. At the beginning of competitive tendering, why LRT haven't required bus operators to conform to a standardised red livery for their route contracts?
3. Was it part of LRT and London Transport Buses policy to have bus liveries specified by the private bus operators?
4. At the time, were there concerns raised by the general public and tourist organisations about various buses in London using their own liveries other than red?
5. What information was provided by LRT to advise passengers about some services using different coloured buses which caused confusion?
6. When the subsidiary companies of London Buses was sold around year 1994, were the buyers required to retain the red livery for their operations?
7. When did London Transport and later TfL started to require bus operators to use red (or partial red) livery as part of their route contracts?
8. When TfL reverted back to the pre-1987 traditional livery with 100% red and white roundels for all buses?”
Your questions cover a mixture of requests for recorded information (which rightly fall under the Freedom of Information Act) and more general requests for explanation (which do not fall under the provisons of the Freedom of Information Act). However, it is not possible to provide answers without TfL staff carrying out an extensive seach of archived material to determine what information is held that might enable us to answer. We do not believe this represents a proportionate use of our resource and your request is therefore being refused under section 14 of the Freedom of Information Act. Section 14 can apply where a request, or its impact on a public authority, cannot be justified. The following guidance from the Information Commissioner on its use provides more detail:
As you can see, the guidance includes the following advice:
“….public authorities should not regard section 14(1) as something which is only to be applied in the most extreme circumstances, or as a last resort. Rather, we would encourage authorities to consider its use in any case where they believe the request is disproportionate or unjustified”;
“The Information Commissioner recognises that dealing with unreasonable requests can place a strain on resources and get in the way of delivering mainstream services or answering legitimate requests”;
And;
“….the key question to ask is whether the request is likely to cause a disproportionate or unjustified level of disruption…this will usually be a matter of objectively judging the evidence of the impact on the authority and weighing this against any evidence about the purpose and value of the request”.
The guidance also provides a number of specific indicators to take into account when judging whether or not the exemption should apply. This includes the following:
“Burden on the authority: The effort required to meet the request will be so grossly oppressive in terms of the strain on time and resources, that the authority cannot reasonably be expected to comply, no matter how legitimate the subject matter or valid then intentions of the requester”;
We consider that trying to source the information to answer your questions would represent a disproportionate effort, requiring the re-allocation of already limited resources and placing an unacceptable burden on a small number of personnel. Further, whilst we appreciate your personal interest in the subject matter, we do not see any particular wider public interest that would justify the allocation of the resource that would be necessary to source the information. We therefore believe that it is reasonable for section 14(1) to apply and for your request to be refused on that basis.
Notwithstanding the above, please note that TfL does have a Corporate Archive where answers to your questions might be found. More details can be found on our website here:
Note that the archive is currently closed until further notice (so far as the physical inspection of documents is concerned) but you can search the online catalogue here:
